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The X-Men Teach us about Good and Evil... and Guns

            I wrote this article a while ago in another platform, but I wanted to share it here as well, because I think it makes a great point about where evil resides. Often, people think of evil as something so far from themselves, that people are not evil, that evil only exists outside of us, and sadly, many people think that they are incapable of evil. Read below to see where evil actually lives...

So, I just returned home from watching the movie “X-MEN Apocalypse.” I would not recommend watching it, because it had the usual explosive eye candy and such, but the “F-bomb” was once used, and generally speaking, it sends the world a very mixed message.
That mixed message has people so divided. I mean, think about it. There are the good guys and the bad guys, and they both have serious power.
Mutants have the power to take and the power to give. They have the power to take what they want, or on the contrary, they have the power to give, such as protection. Professor X and his fresh crew of young mutants are portrayed right off the bat as good “people.” They like to use their powers to help others, considerably, the human world population. The problem is, Professor X is trying to show the world that mutants and humans can coexist peacefully, and Professor X’s enemies are trying to destroy the humans who are against them so the bad mutants can live how they want.
This is curiously similar to people who have guns. Gun owners have the power to either take or give as well as mutants. They have the power to rob banks, mug people, and rape people, murder people, steal from people, etc. Notice that these all involve other people. On the other hand, Gun owners also have the power to protect from home invasion, protect others from rape, or protect others from being murdered, etc. Notice again that this also involves other people.
Just like in X-men Apocalypse, it is not the mutant power that makes the mutant evil, it is the mutant him or herself. Just think if someone had a gun (or an axe or hammer or knife?) at the recent nightclub shooting. Many more people would be alive.
With some people, we want them to have guns, like police officers and such. But the problem is, even some police officers are corrupt. The issue here is that people who are trying to take away guns from the public, are trying to end evil. They see guns as evil. But the problem is that guns are not evil, people are. Long ago, the scriptures even told its readers this same truth. “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). This means that the moral compass of every person is at times overlooked. At one point or another you stole something. Think about it. At another point, you lusted the opposite sex. At another point you told a lie. You failed on a moral level. This is what this verse means.
See? It is not guns that are evil, nor is it specific mutant powers that makes one evil. Evil resides in the human (or mutant) person. What that person chooses to do or say with what he or she has will either be a sin against a holy and perfect God, or it will not.
The Good News is that “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). How does that fix the problem of separation from God? Because Jesus took our place of punishment on the cross. “He died for my sins.” Because He did this, I am now made right in the eyes of God. “It is by grace you are saved, through faith, it is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 10:9 says, “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. Go to Him right now and confess your moral failures to Him, repent (turn) from your sins (moral failures) and trust that only He will save you. It is that easy.

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
 © Nace Howell, 2020

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